David Peace plans to quit novels
Updated on 21 August 2009
The Damned Utd author David Peace talks to More4 News about Japan, poetry and violence in his novels.
After living in Japan for 15 years David Peace is back in Britain but he is not planning to write many more novels.
He said: "Increasingly, I'm not sure novels are not the best form for me and what I am trying to express."
So with eight novels to his name so far, he is only planning four more.
He added: "I think 12 novels is quite enough. It sounds very dramatic but its also a warning to me to say 'don't get lazy, don't fall back on things you've done before. Push yourself because there'll only be four more chances to get it right'."
In recent years, Peace has seen his novel The Damned Utd turned into a film that caused controversy over the realism of its hero Brian Clough and the Red Riding quartet was turned into a Channel 4 drama trilogy.
He said: "To have the writers and actors and directors and producers taking these books and turning them into other pieces of art is very humbling for me because people put so much of their own creative energy into something that's inspired by my work.
"When The Damned Utd was first published it did ok, but it just seemed to gather a life of its own really.
"Again, it's very humbling when people come up to you in the pub and say 'that was a fantastic book, thank you very much'. That didn't happen with any of the other books and its probably unlikely to happen with any of the future books.
"Some people have said the book captured the inner life of Brian Clough but you can never put yourself into the mind of the reader.
"Although I researched it as much as I could, it always was a novel and to me the Brian Clough in the novel is like a character from my imaginiation.
"Some people say it captured the real Brian Clough, others say it didn't.
"What I was trying to do was write a novel within that imaginary world where this character was as convincing as possible and consistent within the bounds of that novel."
Peace is currently working on the third book in his Tokyo trilogy. His latest novel Occupied City is out now.
